Le Ballet Mécanique (1924, Fernand Leger)

Ballet Mécanique (1924) was a project by the American composer George Antheil and the filmmaker/artist Fernand Léger. Although the film was intended to use Antheil's score as a soundtrack, the two parts were not brought together until the 1990s. As a composition, Ballet Mécanique is Antheil's best known and most enduring work. It remains famous for its radical style and instrumentation as well as its storied history.

Directors: Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy
Writer: Fernand Léger
Stars: Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy and Katherine Murphy


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014694/

• Category

  Film & Animation

[tarantism]

Your comment is an example of the great irony that exists nearly every time someone calls something pretentious. There is nothing pretentious about this film. This film was in fact entirely unique and effective at the time it was made. Your expectation for it to be pretentious, and then affirming your expectation upon viewing it fits the precise definition of the word.

[ksNanoSquid]

Completely grating. I don't see how anyone could enjoy this. Unique does not necessarily mean good, and groundbreaking does not mean enjoyable.

Still, art isn't about making you feel good - it's about making you feel. This made me feel sick. So it's a success I suppose.

[PrinceEnki2112]

The Mechanical Ballet is a film that represents the Dadaism art movement. It is meant to represent the alienation brought about by war and capitalism.

[caboose blueteam]

Complete utter shit

[714Sluggo]

For the fellow who found this "grating"

You feel exactly the way a child who has just learned to read feels after trying Shakespeare. It's not the music that needs anything, it's you that needs growth. If you keep your mind open it just might happen.

The music here is complex and difficult.

And wonderful.

[xnir00]

-_-

[krullulon]

It appears as if there's a lot about both the film and the time period that you don't understand. So, instead of just saying the film is nonsensical to explain your lack of appreciation, maybe you could take some time to learn...

[Stephen Dedalus]

*ahem* Modernist art represented and expressed the mood of the early 20th cent, the era that brought the Great Depression and the WW1. It was an atmosphere of fragmentation, entropy, decadence and pessimism. This is expressed in the music of the era, like the one by Stravinsky, as well as the painting, like Picasso and the literature like T.S. Eliot. Summing up, this is a good piece of art that has precisely shown its era's character. And, yes, I'm very fun at partys.

[Miroslav Barančík]

i think that this music was composed for this film but music is in original something like two times longer :) but i´m not sure

[MrAndMrsCairns]

I had to watch this for a class last week, I was so confused

[Brantarrr]

nightmares...